malloc () function troubles.

guys,

I made this program and I would like to have your opinion and suggestions if this is correct; I having trouble with malloc (), the objective here is I need to allocate enough memory for the variable newstring after it was concatenated using strcat function and I have no idea how to check if my malloc() was allocated the space for the variable newstring.

Code:

---

/* This will use malloc() function to allocate */
/* memory for the concatenated two strings */


#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>


char *conca_str(char *, char *);


int main( void )
{


    char *str1 = "Hello";
    char *str2 = " World!";
    char *join;


    join = conca_str(str1, str2);
   
    printf("%s\n", join);


    free(join);


    return 0;
}


char *conca_str(char *string1, char *string2)
{
    char *conca, *newstring;
   
    newstring = strcat(string1, string2);


    conca = (char *) malloc (100);
   
    conca = newstring;


    return conca;
}

---

Appreciate your positive response.

Regards,
pvrgallardo

Code:

---

char *conca_str(const char *string1, const char *string2)
{
    char *conca;
    conca = malloc(strlen(string1) + strlen(string2) + 1);
    strcpy(conca, string1);
    strcat(conca, string2);
    return conca;
}

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There's a few things you don't understand here.

Strings are mutable in C, and while strcat() does return a pointer to the "new" string, it also adds a to b:

Code:

---

char a[256] = "hello ",
    b[] = "world";

strcat(a, b);

puts(a);

---

'a' is now "hello world". Notice that I was careful to make sure there is enough space in a to include the addition.

There is a subtle difference between a regular char array and a string literal:

Code:

---

char *pointerToLiteral = "string literal";
char arrayString[] = "string in array";

---

The first one is declared as a pointer, but what it points to is a string literal. String literals are not mutable. The pointer itself can be reassigned, but you cannot change the literal it currently points to.

Ie, you cannot use either of these:

Code:

---

    char *str1 = "Hello";
    char *str2 = " World!";

---

As the first argument to strcat().

WRT to malloc(), it assigns an address with whatever amount of memory attached. When you do this:

Code:

---

    conca = (char *) malloc (100);

    conca = newstring;

---

You throw that memory away (ie, leak it) by reassigning the pointer to some other address (the return value from the previous strcat). That memory is still allocated, but you can never do anything with it again because you have no way to access it (hence, leaked).

thank you DRK, but I have another question, so I cannot do malloc() function after the string was concatenated? Because from what I understand from your given correction is that you allocate memory space before the string was concatenated.

What I'm trying to do is to concatenate the two strings and allocate space for the new string and then return a pointer to this new string, see below what I did;

Code:

---

char *conca_str(const char *string1, const char *string2){
        char *newstr= strcat(string1, string2);
       
        char *conca = (char *) malloc (strlen(newstr)+1);


        strcpy(conca,newstr);


        return conca;
}

---

Appreciate your positive comment.

If you do that you need to ensure that string1 has enough space to append string2 at the end of it.

A better way would be to allocate memory in newstr for string1, string2 + 1 (for \0), then strcpy string1 into it and finally strcat string2. That way steer clear of affecting the integrity of your parameters (although there is no danger of that in this case).

Don't cast the return value of malloc, and make sure you free what you return from this function in the calling function, or else you will be leaking memory.

merci claudiu, actually here is my created program;

Code:

---

* This will use malloc() function to allocate *//* memory for the concatenated two strings */


#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>


char *conca_str(char *, char *);


int main( void )
{


        char str1[256] = "Hello";
        char str2[256] = " World!";
        char *join;


        join = conca_str(str1, str2);
       
        printf("%s\n", join);


        free(join);


        return 0;
}


char *conca_str(char *string1, char *string2)
{
        char *newstr= strcat(string1, string2);
       
        char *conca = (char *) malloc (strlen(newstr)+1);


        strcpy(conca,newstr);


        return conca;
}

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does it look ok?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MK27

Ie, you cannot use either of these:

Code:

---

       
char *str1 = "Hello";
char *str2 = " World!";

---

As the first argument to strcat().

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Cases like this would normally be caught at compile time if the programmer recognizes them as string literals and puts the appropriate const qualifier in place:

Code:

---

const char *str1 = "Hello";
const char *str2 = " World!";

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Done this way, they'd get a compile time error using either str1 or str2 as the first argument to strcpy/strcat and they'd know (hopefully) to fix the problem. Without the const in place however a user would not know anything was wrong until they ran the program. For beginners unused to the intricacies of the language such issues can be perplexing.